Get Verified on Facebook: Page or Profile (Blue + Gray Verification Badge)

Ahh the blue check mark. The one additional feature that your Facebook page can have over your friend’s pages.

Every day, I get tons of messages about this. But is it worth it? and what are the steps to apply?

Getting verified on Facebook (whether it is a personal profile or a page) is actually very simple.

The process requires two things:

Great press and
a compelling reason.

In this post I list the steps that you need to follow to get that highly sought-after blue or grey verification badge to your name. I decided to break it down into 3 parts:

How to get your personal Facebook page or profile verified
How to get your business page on Facebook verified
Benefits of being verified, length of approval and more

You might be wondering if you need a lot of followers to get verified. This doesn’t seem to be the case as long as you can prove you are someone worthy of a blue badge.

So read on to figure out how to get verified on Facebook.

How to get your personal page or profile verified (Blue Badge)

First, let me start by saying that not everyone can be verified, unfortunately.

According to Facebook’s Support Team only people in the following categories can be verified with a badge:

Journalists
Popular Brand or Businesses
Government Officials
Celebrities
Media
Entertainment
Sports Companies

If your page is in any of these categories, there is a higher chance that you can be verified.

Pro tip: If your personal facebook page is not in this category, you can always change it to “Public Figure” by going to About > Category.

Pro tip #2: You can convert your personal page into a profile and turn all your friends into likes.

When you have your page ready, follow these steps:

Link to your profile or Page from your official website. (optional, but why wouldn’t you)
For a Facebook Page, different types of basic information boxes will appear in your Page’s About section depending on your Page’s category. It’s important to add accurate details so that people can quickly learn about your Page. Include your website, address, phone number, awards, bio, and more. The more complete it is, the better.
For a Facebook profile, provide accurate information in your profile. Include in your About section a website address that is registered in your name. Make your profile public by default so that people can follow it. Have at least a few hundred followers (~500) before requesting a badge.
There used to be a form link you could use to submit your verification request but that doesn’t exist anymore so you need to do the following (note that this method is not guaranteed to work but might be worth a shot):
- Click the blue question mark in the top-right corner of a Facebook page (ex: your home page)
- Select Report a Problem > Something Isn’t Working
- Under “Where is the problem?” select Pages.
In the textbox, introduce yourself and write a compelling reason as to why you should be verified. Everyone’s case is different so I won’t tell you what to write. Here you should include your website and links to relevant press articles or a Wikipedia page. Don’t make it an essay, keep it short and quick.
(Btw If you don’t have press, you can hire me to do your PR. Here, you can read the press I’ve gotten for myself and my companies.)
You should also upload a valid government-issued ID on the Upload Screenshots section.
Wait 2-7 days to hear back from Big Brother Facebook.

Get your business page verified on Facebook (Grey Badge)

Verifying a business on Facebook is much simpler than a personal page, although it has its caveats.

From Facebook’s support: “If your Page’s category is Local Business, Company or Organization, your Page may be eligible for a gray verification badge. If you’re an admin, your Page has a profile picture and cover photo, and is eligible, you’ll see this option in your Page’s Settings.”

To verify your Page on Facebook with a grey badge, you can use your business’s publicly listed phone number or a business document (example: phone bill).

The steps to follow are:

Click Settings at the top of your Page
Click General and then Page Verification
Click Verify this Page, then click Get Started
Enter a publicly listed phone number for your business, your country and language
Click Call Me Now to allow Facebook to call you with a verification code
Enter the 4-digit verification code and click Continue

Note: If you don’t see the “verify this page” it is because Facebook hasn’t rolled out the feature to all users just yet or your page is not eligible.

What are the benefits of having a blue or grey badge? Is it worth it?

Automatic EGO boost (come on, you feel good when you see it)
Boosts the credibility of your business. Users will know they are interacting with the real page and not an impostor or fake account.
Clients will know that you take your social media game serious.
Verified pages will rank higher on Facebook’s Graph Search and on Google search results (Read how to do SEO).

To be honest, other than having a shiny badge next to your name, having a verified checkmark is not that exciting or worth it, specially if you are paying for one. I would highly encourage you not to buy facebook verification.

Btw, I do NOT sell any sort of verifications.

How long does it take for Facebook to approve/reject a verification request?

For a grey badge it can take anywhere from 48 hours to a week to receive a response from Facebook.

For a blue badge it takes 3-45 days to hear back. Make sure to keep an eye out on your support inbox.

Why did Facebook reject my verification?

If you got your verification request denied it is most likely due to the following reasons:

You don’t have enough press. -> Learn how to get featured on Forbes, Techcrunch, etc. or hire my digital marketing agency to do it for you.
You don’t have a Wikipedia. FYI, to get a Wiki, you first need high quality press.
You didn’t write a compelling enough reason or the ID you provided was blurry or not appropriate.
You don’t have enough native content on Facebook. -> They won’t verify a dead page.
Facebook is being very strict on who they verify and they won’t verify you unless you can prove your popularity.

What is the difference between the blue and gray badge?

As you can see in this example, blue badges are usually granted to the official brand or personality. The grey badge is given to local businesses at specific locations.

Conclusion

So those are the steps to verify your page or profile on Facebook. It used to be much simpler and you could apply through a link but I assume that Facebook got too many requests and decided to take down the link.

If you got verified, congrats! That is a great step towards beefing up your social media presence. If you are still not verified, let me tell you, you are not missing much. There are other better ways to interact and prove whatever you want to prove to your audience.

I encourage you to read these other posts, which you will certainly enjoy:

Please share this article with your Facebook friends and marketers!

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